Musical Fountain

Frequency data from a song is displayed along the central axis (color added for effect). Along the orthogonal, vertical axis I display the intensity of each frequency. This Fourier spectrum is delivered to the viewer in time slices, giving it the appearance of an approaching landscape that flips its orientation at a well-defined boundary and then fades into the distance.

The musical fountain was inspired by observing how water falls as it overflows a tray. As the water flows towards the tray’s edge, it will cling to the underside of the tray before it drips to the floor below. One can model this phenomenon as a string wave pulse flipping its orientation at a hard boundary, which is exactly what I did here.